A 28.5-litre Fiat record-breaker from 1911 makes its first public run in more
than 100 years at the 2015 Festival of Speed

The Fiat S76, unofficially the fastest car in the world in 1911, will make its first public run for more than 100 years when it tackles the Goodwood Festival of Speed hillclimb on June 25-28 as part of a special category of an earth-shattering Edwardian leviathans.

Only two S76s were produced by the Italian manufacturer, with the aim of snatching the records for the flying kilometre and flying mile from the 'Blitzen' Benzes. The S76 achieved the mile record with Pietro Bordino driving at Saltburn Sands in 1911 and was officially recorded at more than 135mph on a kilometre attempt at Oostenede in Belguim, only to be denied the record as it was unable to complete a return run within the specified one hour.

While one car was dismantled by Fiat after the First World War to prevent rival manufacturers obtaining its technical secrets, the other was purchased by Russian aristocrat Boris Soukhanov and eventually made its way to Australia, where it was modernised and campaigned as a "Fiat Racing Special".

Bristol-based enthusiast Duncan Pittaway, who will drive the S76 at Goodwood, brought the chassis to the UK in 2003 and reunited it with the original 28.5-litre, four-cylinder engine from the dismantled car.

Following a 10-year restoration and an appearance on static display at the 2014 Festival of Speed, the S76 was fired up for the first time in a century last December.

Lord March thinks of earplugs as the 28.5-litre Fiat fires. Note the fire extinguisher...

Pittaway, who intends to drive the S76 to the Festival of Speed from his Bristol base, brought it to Goodwood's 1.16-mile hillclimb in March for its first run in a century in private, during which Lord March had a passenger ride.

The car is indicative of an era in which motor racing was in its infancy and the flat-out and fearless competitors would do battle over hundreds of miles of dusty and cobbled roads with danger never far away.

Among the other leviathans confirmed for the Festival of Speed are huge-capacity machines from the likes of Benz, Darracq, Mercedes, Metallurgique-Maybach, Mors, Napier and Sunbeam.

Pittaway said: "After restoring a Bugatti T35, I was looking for a new challenge and the S76, which is one of the more maligned cars of its generation, fitted the bill nicely. All of the original S76 components that have survived have been restored, from the chassis and engine down to the suspension, axles, pedals, steering box, with the gearbox, radiator and bodywork being created using the original Fiat drawings.

"As the last and largest of the huge-engined Edwardian monsters, it should be sensational for the Festival of Speed visitors to see – and hear – it heading up the hillclimb."

As has become tradition, the Festival of Speed will open with the Moving Motor Show on Thursday, June 25, which showcases the latest road cars and allows people to test drive them on the famous hillclimb course in the grounds of Goodwood House.

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